Make a change in your club
Take the Challenge 360° and make a change in your club!
Making a change to the way you deal with waste in your club is easy - all it takes is a small bit of organisation. A great way to do this is through a committee if you have one, and if not, why not form one.
There are three main ways to think about your waste. You should think of ways that you can Reduce Re-use and Recycle it.
Reduce
The majority of waste generated in youth and sports clubs is packaging waste from food items such as soft drinks or sweet wrappers.
- Most sweet wrappers are difficult to recycle, so it could be an idea to think about the packaging that sweets and chocolate come in before you buy. Many chocolate bars come in paper wrapping rather than plastic and this is much handier to recycle.
- Before buying new equipment for your club check if there is something you could mend instead, so you can avoid having to throw out the old equipment.
- Buy more durable equipment in the first place so it won't need to be replaced as often.
- Instead of wrapping your lunch in clingfilm or tinfoil, use a lunchbox.
- Avoid the temptation to burn you waste as a means of reducing it - this is both illegal and very harmful to the environment and your health. See our section on Backyard Burning for more information.
Re-use
- Plastic bottles for soft drinks can be re-used again and again, which will also save you money. Large 2 litre bottles of soft drinks are much better value than the 500ml ones.
- Use rechargeable batteries for appliances.
Recycle
- If you buy soft drinks in cans - these can be recycled. Look into the Cans for Cash scheme with Repak.
- If you don't own your own meeting venue, talk to the management about getting a recycling collection for recyclable waste.
- Download bin posters from this site to attached to bins to help you sort your waste.
- Find out where your nearest recycling centre and or bottle bank is and make the most of it
- If you haven't already done so, why not start composting at your club? It can be a great project and team activity.
- Don't forget to recycle when you are away on trips or at events. Just bring along a bag to collect the recyclable waste and then you can sort it when you get back to your club.
Awareness Raising
To help get things moving in your club you will need to raise awareness. Race Against waste have some posters we can send you as well as fact sheets about composting, landfill and backyard burning and the small change guide for waste management in small businesses, which, depending on the size of your club, could be very useful. Mini fun fact posters are available for download here. You can order any of these materials via the Contact us section.
Did you know?
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